Four takeaways from Bears position coaches Tuesday:
• The Bears will ask Akiem Hicks how he feels — and others, too. Defensive line coach Jay Rodgers didn’t guarantee Hicks’ return from Injured Reserve on Sunday, but explained how he’ll monitor his progress this week. Hicks, who dislocated his left elbow against the Raiders, will practice in hopes of coming off IR before the Packers game.
“First thing is, you’ve got to ask him — ‘How do you feel when you did this?’” Rodgers said. “Put him in positions to be able to strike and separate. Ask the offensive linemen that he’s going against [in practice]— ‘How did it feel when he punched you?’
“Those are the things that I’m going be looking at and have been looking it when you’re starting to put together what’s next for him. But the biggest thing is asking him how he feels.”
• The Bears’ outside linebackers are looking forward to his return. Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd are winning their pass rushes, outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino said. The problem is that, without Hicks pushing through the middle of the line, quarterbacks step up in the pocket and avoid the edge rushers.
“We’re at the launch point at the end of the down,” Monachino said. “But the launch point has now moved up into the pocket.”
That could change Sunday.
“Our guys’ job is to knock the ball back into Akiem,” Monachino said. “And his job is to knock the ball high and outside to us.”
• David Montgomery is learning from a rookie mistake. The Bears were ahead by 17 points with three minutes to go in the third quarter Thursday when Montgomery took a handoff and began to fight for extra yards. Cowboys players held him up while linebacker Joe Thomas ripped at the ball, forcing a fumble recovered by teammate Jaylon Smith.
“He learned a good lesson the other day,” running backs coach Charles London said. “He runs so hard and he’s hard to bring down. So I said, ‘That’s how people are going to try to attack you now. They’re going to try to hold you up and strip the ball.’
“He knows you have to do a better job taking care of it. You never want to take away that spirit he has, of trying to fight for extra yards. But that time also has to be calculated, to take care of the ball.”
Up 17 that late in the game, London’s advice was simple.
“Just go down,” he said. “Take care of the football. Take the profit. Live to play another play.”
• The Bears O-line is getting better. Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said his unit is “inching forward,” though he was hesitant to give credit — or blame — to any one player for its recent improvement.
He said that Cornelius Lucas, who’s been playing right tackle for an injured Bobby Massie, “has been really a blessing for us.” But is the line better because Bears switched Cody Whitehair to center and James Daniels to left guard?
“I don’t see it a ton of difference, to be honest with you,” he said. “As long as those two are on the field I’m happy. “
It is because they’re running more?
“All linemen enjoy the ability to go and come off the ball and attack the guy over you,” he said. “But it’s a product, I think, of a lot of things.”
Pushed on whether Daniels could play center eventually — Reporters “love that topic,” he chirped— the coach eventually conceded that “the guy can play center, there’s no question.”
